EdinburghTim

We were on the Journey in early March. I can confirm what the others have said. You dock in the city up the river. Azamara also run a shuttle bus that takes you from the port and drops you in the city centre next to the Caravelle Hotel and Opera House - a 10-15 minute journey. From there you can explore the city on foot on your own if you're brave enough to cross the roads!

Cruise director Darren gets off Journey tomorrow (6th Feb) when this cruise ends in Sydney. He will be replaced as CD by Stephen. Staff captain Dario is also leaving on vacation and I believe so are the excellent house band Fantastic Beats. Not sure who will be their replacements.

Grace is a gem. She got off Journey in Auckland and was replaced by Jose. She has been promoted to cruise director and will rejoin on Pursuit after her vacation

It does seem to be ship specific. When we were on the Journey in June, the muster required us all to report to our muster stations A/B en masse before sailing. We got off the Pursuit yesterday in Oslo and when we boarded in Dublin at the end of July, we were played a video in the cabaret lounge in small groups after we had completed check-in in the cabaret lounge, regardless of muster station. I much prefer the Pursuit approach and hope they standardize this way.

We visited Porto on Pursuit in June last year. There was an Azamara shuttle running from Leixoes (where we docked) to Porto. It was quite a distance and took 30 minutes+ because of the traffic but it was free. You could walk into the old town or across the river to where the port houses are in about 15 minutes from where the shuttle dropped you

Just off Pursuit today in Barcelona after a fabulous cruise. Weather and seas were perfect - sunny skies and very calm. The whole crew were excellent particularly the entertainment team led by Emily. Patio was open for dinner sporadically. You needed to check the daily Insider to see whether it was available on a particular night. There were 578 passengers on board for this cruise and 571 for the next one departing today for a 10-day cruise to Ravenna. This information is from a friend who is staying on for a B2B. Looks like occupancy is getting back up to pre-pandemic levels - which is good from a corporate point of view but I'll miss the days of walking around seemingly on a private yacht!

Les, I think you're worrying unnecessarily. Azamara have changed the wording on the website since their original communication to us to remove the ambiguity around 'days' versus 'hours' for precisely the reason you articulate. If you are embarking on Tuesday, a LFT from any time on Monday (or Tuesday) would be acceptable to Az. Ivi, in post #203 confirms the same after speaking to her TA. However, I'm hoping Az will remove this particular requirement before our cruise in June. If not, we will be taking the test at the airport before we fly out the day before embarkation as per my recommendation to you. Even if I were wrong (which I'm not), the worst that would happen is that we would have to fork out again for Az's high-priced test at the pier. Not great I accept but not a showstopper. Plus, I don't have happy memories of the testers at Lisbon trying to push the swab through my brain and out the top of my skull when we took the free test before our November Az cruise!

les37b, you can get an antigen test at LGW before flying out on Monday. A negative result anytime the day before you sail on Tuesday is fine. Don't get hung up on testing time versus boarding time. Here is the relevant section of the (current) website: In the interest of welcoming you onboard and starting your voyage as quickly as possible, guests will no longer be required to undergo a COVID-19 antigen test while checking in at the terminal. However, to strive for a COVID-19 free environment, guests will be required to provide a negative COVID-19 test upon embarkation. At-home and/or self-testing kits are not accepted. The test results must be from a testing laboratory or a licensed testing site. The COVID-19 test can either be: PCR: Test date no older than 3 days prior to embarkation; OR Antigen: Test date must be within one day of embarkation Note, the switch in the wording from the original communication I received on 21st April (dated 20th April) which stated the validity of the PCR test in hours (see below) which led to a lot of confusion of the kind you are mentioning: PCR: Test date no older than 72 hours prior to embarkation; OR Antigen: Test date must be within one day of embarkation So Monday for your LFT should be fine although it will mean getting to the airport a bit earlier. I'm also hoping that particular hoop will be gone before June so are holding off booking our tests until nearer the time